‘Sanitised’ trenches won’t tell true story of bloodbaths

Campaigners opposing the digging of trenches at Pollok Park for educational and tourism events have started a petition to force a halt to the plans.

The change.org petition was started by John Couzin who slams the idea behind the installation as “grotesque”, calling the site “a monstrosity”.

He advocates that Pollok Park is not an area for what he dubbed war games.

The trench site is the brainchild of experts from Glasgow University, backed by Glasgow Council and funded by almost £100,000 of lottery money.

The Extra reported recently that the so-called “Digging-In” project will host a regular programme of public events and school visits.

Hands-on learning activities and living history events will aim to convey how soldiers managed life in the hostile, stressful environment of the Western Front and the conflict’s impact on communities on the Home Front. But Mr Couzin dismisses this as “utter nonsense”, saying instead it will be a sanitised misrepresentation.

A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “This is an educational project designed to let visitors reflect, a century later, on the futility of war. It could never be, and is not claiming to be, a true representation of the battlefield.

“That would be impossible to recreate. However, it is designed to give people, particularly young people, an insight into aspects of trench warfare endured by those fighting in trenches during the First World War.”